Anterior Microsurgical Approach to Ventral Lower Cervical Spine Meningiomas

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Increased cortical excitability after selective REM sleep deprivation in healthy humans: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

REM sleep has antiepileptogenic properties whereas, its loss is known to have a proconvulsive role. However, the mechanisms underlying the proepileptogenic effects of REM sleep deprivation are yet not fully understood. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of selective REM sleep deprivation (SRD) on cortical excitability in healthy subjects by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Comparison of two different classifiers for mental tasks-based Brain-Computer Interface: MLP Neural Networks vs. Fuzzy Logic

This study is devoted to the classification of fourclass mental tasks data for a Brain-Computer Interface protocol. In such view we adopted Multi Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP) and Fuzzy C-means analysis for classifying: left and right hand movement imagination, mental subtraction operation and mental recitation of a nursery rhyme. Five subjects participated to the experiment in two sessions recorded in distinct days. Different parameters were considered for the evaluation of the performances of the two classifiers: accuracy, that is, percentage of correct classifications, training time and size of the training dataset. The results show that even if the accuracies of the two classifiers are quite similar, the MLP classifier needs a smaller training set to reach them with respect to the Fuzzy one. This leads to the preference of MLP for the classification of mental tasks in Brain Computer Interface protocols

Is autonomic nervous system involved in restless legs syndrome during wakefulness?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate cardiovascular autonomic function in patients with restless leg syndrome (RLS) by means of cardiovascular reflexes and heart rate variability (HRV) during wakefulness.METHODS: Twelve RLS patients and 14 controls underwent cardiovascular function tests including head-up tilt test (HUTT), Valsalva maneuver, deep breathing, hand grip, and cold face. HRV analysis was performed in the frequency domain using both autoregressive (AR) and fast Fourier transform algorithms in rest supine condition and during HUTT.RESULTS: There was a significant increase in systolic blood pressure values in supine rest condition and a trend toward a lower Valsalva ratio in RLS patients with respect to controls. The significant and physiological changes of HRV at HUTT detected in healthy subjects were not found in RLS patients. CONCLUSION: RLS patients exhibit a tendency toward hypertension, reduced amplitude of both sympathetic and parasympathetic responses at HUTT, as well as blunted parasympathetic drive to blood pressure changes. These findings, if confirmed by more controlled studies, might support the hypothesis of auonomic nervous system involvement during wakefulness and consequently an enhanced cardiovascular risk in RLS

Middle Palaeolithic technical behaviour: Material import-export and Levallois production at the SU 13 of Oscurusciuto rock shelter, Southern Italy

The Oscurusciuto rock shelter, located in southern Italy (Puglia), has yielded a long Middle Palaeolithic stratigraphy rich in lithic assemblages, fireplaces and faunal remains, attesting Neanderthal occupation during the MIS 3. This paper is focused on the stratigraphic unit 13, consisting of a sandy compact deposit mixed with pyroclastic sediment above a thick level of tephra-US 14, identified as Mt. Epomeo green tuff (dated Ar/Ar ~ 55 ka).Level 13 represents the first stable human occupation after the deposition of tephra. Our goal was to examine the lithic assemblage of this stratigraphic unit by means of an interdisciplinary approach (technology, RMU, refitting program) in order to identify the economic behaviour and technical strategies of Neanderthals occupying the stratigraphic unit 13 of Oscurusciuto.The technical strategies applied indicate fragmentation of the reduction processes, as well as probable events of importation and exportation of objects. The lithic material were introduced at different stages of manufacturing. Pieces were introduced in the form of rough objects (pebbles), as well as semi-finished items, and as finished tools. This fragmentation of the chaîne opératoire also demonstrate the palimpsest nature of the level which is made up of different events happening one after another.The main concept of debitage was Levallois, generally realized on local jasper and siliceous limestone pebbles or cortical flakes. Jasper and siliceous limestone flakes, backed flakes and convergent flakes were the technological objectives of the debitage. A marginal volumetric debitage aimed at producing bladelets was also attested

Virtual reality implementation as a useful software tool for e-health applications

Human hand and finger movements are of obvious importance. The possibility of recording all fingers joints movements during everyday life is then strategic for medical diagnosis, surgery and post traumatic rehabilitation. A proper presentation of recorded data can be really useful for doctors and therapists to correctly act in the occurrence of peripheral nerve injury, rigidities, camptodactyly (decline in permanent deformity of the interphalangeal junction), orthoses, tenolisi, congenital malformations, trauma, dexterity and/or muscular and/or articulate motility evaluations, thumb atros, syndromes, use of mentors, spasm, use of mechanical supports etc.. According to this context we report a virtual reality implementation on the basis of fingers movements recorded data, suitable for fingers joints movement analysi

The Estimation of Cortical Activity for Brain-Computer Interface: Applications in a Domotic Context

In order to analyze whether the use of the cortical activity, estimated from noninvasive EEG recordings, could be useful to detect mental states related to the imagination of limb movements, we estimate cortical activity from high-resolution EEG recordings in a group of healthy subjects by using realistic head models. Such cortical activity was estimated in region of interest associated with the subject's Brodmann areas by using a depth-weighted minimum norm technique. Results showed that the use of the cortical-estimated activity instead of the unprocessed EEG improves the recognition of the mental states associated to the limb movement imagination in the group of normal subjects. The BCI methodology presented here has been used in a group of disabled patients in order to give them a suitable control of several electronic devices disposed in a three-room environment devoted to the neurorehabilitation. Four of six patients were able to control several electronic devices in this domotic context with the BCI system

Symptomatic nonconvulsive status epilepticus erroneously suggestive of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) may have heterogeneous presentations and differential diagnosis may be particularly difficult because clinical signs coupled with periodic EEG pattern are most often subtle or non-specific. Moreover, few cases of NCSE have been previously described as the presenting symptom of sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD) [1,4,5,7]. We describe a patient with a NCSE strongly, but erroneously, suggestive of a probable sCJD